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News: Some
of our scholarship winners.
**If you are a scholarship winner we'd love to
feature you on this page. Just email a summary of your achievements
and a picture. We'll do the rest."
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Scholarships Presented
to 2009 Winners
 In the
function room at the premises of the Shire
of Mundaring, trust patron Robert Juniper presented cheques to the three
winners. The event took place on Sunday December 6th
at 4pm. Shire President Helen Dullard welcomed the guests. Trustees were
there,as were some Shire Councillors, friends of the
trust and family and friends of the scholarship winners. The
recipients pictured here with Robert were Brooke, James and
Paige:
Brooke Prendergast (French
horn player) Resident of Mount
Helena, attended Mount Helena PS and Eastern Hills SHS. Has
just completed a B.Mus. at WAAPA and plans to continue with a
master’s next year. Member of the West Australian Youth
Orchestra and various other ensembles.
James Rhoads
(singer) Resident in Glen
Forrest. Music scholarship to Perth Modern School. Is also a
member of the Gondwana Chorale, as well as the St.George’s
Cathedral choir.
Paige Byrne
(singer)
a
resident of Glen Forrest, educated at Glen Forrest Primary and
St Brigid’s. Currently doing a B.Mus. at WAAPA majoring in
Classical Voice. Paige has been a member of the Gondwana
Voices (a national children’s choir) and also the
Gondwana Chorale ( a follow-on group for those now too old to
belong to the Gondwana Voices).
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Paige Byrne -
singer and
musician | |
Paige Byrne
(2009 scholarship winner)
Paige
attended Glen Forrest Primary School and St Brigid’s
College in Lesmurdie. At the age of 9 she
discovered her love for singing when she joined the WA
Children’s Choir. Paige was selected as one of four
children to record a collaborative CD for the 2003
Bali Bombings memorial. She was recommended to
audition for Gondwana Choirs, an internationally
renowned Australian Choral Program based in Sydney and
was accepted into Gondwana Voices from 2005 till 2007
and Gondwana Chorale from 2008 onwards, and started
studying voice at school. During Paige's time with
Gondwana,she has performed on many different major
occasions such as the Opening Ceremony of the Melbourne
2006 Commonwealth Games, as part of the guest choir
in the Festival of Voice’s in Tasmania, the NAB Dream
Festival with The Cat Empire and Katie Noonan. In
2007 she was one of 25 choristers selected for an
international tour to The Festival 500 in Canada, The
Polyfollia Festival in France, and performances in
London at The BBC Proms with the BBC Symphonic
Orchestra. Paige also performed with Gondwana in
many world premiers and major works with orchestras such
as WASO, SSO, MSO, and AYO. Paige performed at locations
such as the MCG, the Opera House, and the Royal Albert
Hall, and has recorded CD’s for the Commonwealth Games,
and for ABC Classics. | |
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Denis Crowdy (1988
scholarship
winner)
Denis went to Port Moresby to take up a position teaching
guitar at the University of Papua New Guinea. He taught
there for 8 years and developed a research interest in
ethnomusicology - more specifically with a focus on guitar
music and popular music. Denis undertook a Masters
degree (studying externally) in ethnomusicology examining
string band music in PNG (now available as abook) at the University of
New England in Armidale, NSW. He moved to Sydney to take
up a position at Macquarie University in 2000, and completed a
PhD exploring the music of a band from PNG that fused traditional
music with jazz and rock.
Denis's research interests have recently
turned towards remote recording technologies, and he has been
actively recording in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Papua
New Guinea with solar powered multitrack equipment (enabling studio
quality recording in villages without power). A
recording he engineered and produced with US guitarist Bob
Brozman and string bands in PNG was the subject of a
documentary, and has been released on a commercial label in
the UK. Denis still plays and teaches guitar, and
recorded and performed with Torres Strait musician Seaman Dan
on his first three albums. |
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Denis with daughter
Mareta. | |
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Michelle
Sowden | |
Michelle Sowden (2004 winner)
Michelle completed the Certificate II (Musical
Theatre) course at WAAPA in 2001 before going to study acting
at the VCA (BA, Acting) from 2002-2003. This training allowed
her to experiment with devising individual and group work,
eventuating in several productions at the college.
In 2004 she was the
animateur of an independently devised project in Melbourne
based on D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The project
- Flanuese - was performed in an old suburban house and
involved collaboration with a musician and a visual artist, as
well as four actors.
Michelle graduated from Curtin University
with a BA (Communication & Cultural Studies) in 2005,
majoring in Performance Studies. While studying she directed
two one-act plays and performed in and assisted technically on
several others, including full-length
productions.
Michelle was selected as one of three
directors in the first Black Swan BSX Hotbed (2006) and was
assistant director on Buchner’s Woyzeck directed by Matt
Lutton at PICA. Other directing credits
include: Extracts from Call of the Wild by Jenny Kemp
(Hayman); Red Cross by Sam Shepard (Hayman); and Angel’s
Children (Darlington Theatre Players) for which she received
the ITA One Act Play Festival Adjudicator’s
Award.
Michelle recently directed
DC Moore's play 'Alaska', a sharp analysis of racism and authority.
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Jessica Davey - 2008
Scholarship Winnner
Jessica attended
Mundaring Primary and Eastern Hills Senior High School and
started the saxophone when in Year 8. She was then part of the
Eastern Hills and Districts Concert Band for 7 years under the
direction of Maurice Bourgault and Justin Lynam. Jessica
obtained her Bachelor of Music at the University of WA and has
now been accepted into the Graduate Diploma of Music at the WA
Academy of Performing Arts. She is a member of the UWA Big
Band and Wind Symphony and has performed in a number of
concerts, both solo and ensemble from 2005 - 2008. She has
appeared in musicals, including Cats, Cabaret, Joseph and the
Technicolour Dreamcoat, 42nd Street and, most recently Loving
Repeating with WAAPA in which she had to learn the flute. One
of her future ambitions is to travel and study in Amsterdam.
Jessica was awarded a $6,000 Mundaring Arts scholarship. |
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Jessica Davey -
Saxophonist |
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Tom Woods
(scholarship awarded in
1988)
Conductor Tom Woods has established a reputation
conducting symphonic concerts, opera and ballet. Born in
Tanzania to Australian parents, Tom studied conducting,
cello and piano at the West Australian Conservatorium before
undertaking conducting studies in Moscow under Maestro
Vladimir Ponkin. In 2007, he conducted a new season-highlight
production of Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire and La
Traviata for Opera Australia and travelled to Adelaide for Il
Barbiere di Sivilglia with State Opera of South Australia; Tom
also conducted concerts with the Christchurch Symphony and led
many performances by the Australian Ballet.
He
becomes Principal Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony, New
Zealand in 2008. Also in 2008, he conducted La Bohème in Sydney,
Madame Butterfly in Melbourne and Rigoletto in
Adelaide. |
| Tom Woods - Conductor |
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Tim
Van Der Kuil – jazz guitarist (1989)
Tim received his grounding in jazz
studying at the WA Conservatorium and playing in local rock
bands. To broaden his experience, he moved to Sydney where he
performed with such celebrities as James Morrison, Claire
Martin and Martin Taylor. He then set off to London and formed
his own trio Thumb with whom he recorded his first
CD.
Over the past
decade Tim has built up a reputation as one of the UK’s
leading session guitarists, playing on recordings by various
artists including Robin Williams, Sugababes, Busted, Nerin
Pallot, Tina Turner, Delta Goodrem, Andrea Bocelli, Ben’s
Brother and Ross Copperman.
He performs live with various bands
including Sugababes, Ben’s Brother and Irish group The Script.
With Sugababes he played at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday
concert in Hyde Park, and he travelled to Malaysia recently
with The Script for the MTV Asia Awards.
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Tim Van Der
Kuil |
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Emily Reilly
(1998)
1998 was great year for Emily,
winning the Modern and New Vogue sections in the
Australasian Junior Ballroom Dancing Championships and
the Australian Open in Modern. Emily competed in the
Junior, Youth and Amateur categories with previous partner,
Richard Tonizzo and now dances in the Professional category
with Richard's brother, David Tonizzo. David and Emily won
their first competition at the WA Open in Amateur Ballroom,
after which they turned Professional. They are the current WA
Professional Ballroom Champions and are undefeated in
Professional Ballroom in WA. As well as competing, she
and her partner of three years spend time coaching competition
couples and performing shows. In 2006, they won the National
Capital Dancesport Championships in Professional Open Ballroom
and placed third in the Australian Open Professional Ballroom.
David and Emily also took part in Luciano Pavarotti's Farewell
Tour and Emily partnered celebrity Tood Woodbridge in TV
7's 'Dancing with the Stars'. She completed Bachelors
degrees in Environment Design and Commerce at the University
of WA.
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Emily with Todd
Woodbridge |
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